Dhaka attack: Vigil intensified along Indo-Bangladesh border

New Delhi/Kolkata, July 2 (IANS) The Border Security Force (BSF) on Saturday intensified vigil along the Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal in the wake of the terror attack in Dhaka after the government sounded a high alert in bordering states.

Official sources said in Delhi that the Union Home Ministry has directed the Border Security Force (BSF) and other agencies to keep strict vigil along the international borders.

“Adequate security measures need to be taken in border areas of West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya,” an informed source said.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh was briefed by senior officials in the ministry and security agencies on the situation in Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, the BSF intensified vigil across the Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal.

“The vigil across the frontier has been intensified. An alert has been sounded and we are doing the needful,” said a BSF officer in Kolkata.

In coordination with the police, the BSF troopers are also conducting search operations in villages near the Bangladesh border.

Security has also been beefed up in the state’s major installations, including airports and railway stations.

Reports received so far said personnel of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka were safe, sources said.

Bangladesh has lately seen an increase in militant Islamist violence.

Home to about 150 million Muslims, Bangladesh has for long been able to ward off Islamic radicalism and the Sheikh Hasina government in particular has been widely considered to be committed to secularism.

However, Islamic fundamentalism of the Wahabi and Talibani variety has of late “plagued” a section of the Bangladeshi society as manifested in attacks on secular writers, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians, say Indian intelligence agencies.

“Apparently it all moved according to a set pattern,” an informed source told IANS.

Official sources said the Tripura and Assam governments have reported to the central government in the recent past the activities of a few Bangladesh-based Islamic organisations which “could have also aligned to the ISIS” mainly in terms of getting funds and identifying “raw recruits”.

The government has advised the media to exercise self-restraint in reporting on the situation in Bangladesh as “sensationalising” things would not help fight terrorism.

“We have always considered Bangladesh a friendly country, and the administration and the security forces there would do its best to fight terrorism,” the source added.

Bangladeshi security forces on Saturday morning rescued 13 hostages and gunned down six terrorists, ending the siege at a cafe in Dhaka that began on Friday, officials said. Twenty hostages were also killed in the terror attack.